Navy

The U.S. Coast Guard commandant told Congress on Tuesday that his department failed to complete a congressionally-ordered analysis on where and how it could operate on the Rio Grande to stem piracy, smuggling and murder.

The confession came five days after U.S. and Texas lawmen were involved in a blazing pre-dawn shootout with smugglers near the rural Rio Grande Valley town of Abram.

Adm. Robert Papp said there were “no excuses” why his department missed a Jan. 15 deadline to complete the analysis of the navigable parts of the river, and submit it to Congress, which can authorize more funding and resources.

The USS George H.W. Bush, the United States’ newest aircraft carrier, has embarked on its maiden deployment under the leadership of the first woman to ever command a carrier strike group.

“The world is pretty unpredictable right now. And as we tell our sailors every day, we need to be prepared for any contingency. So it’s all about readiness,” Rear Adm. Nora Tyson said. “If you watch the news every day it’s pretty unpredictable from one day to the next.”

Two days after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in his million-dollar hideaway in the suburbs of Pakistan’s capital, Texas Rep. Ted Poe introduced a proposal to freeze American aid to Pakistan until it shows that it had no knowledge of bin Laden’s whereabouts.

“Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do,” Poe said. “It seems unimaginable that Osama bin Laden was living 1,000 yards away from a military base in a million-dollar mansion built especially for him and no one in the Pakistani government knew about it. I don’t buy it.”

Aggressive interrogations during the Bush administration including water boarding forced the tactical mastermind of the 9/11 attacks to give up the name of an al Qaeda courier who helped lead U.S. intelligence operatives to the compound in Pakistan where terrorist Osama bin Laden was found hiding out, according to a Texas congressman on the House Homeland Security Committee.
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Most Texas elected officials lauded both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama today for their parts in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.

“I appreciate the hard work over the last decade of President Obama and former President George W. Bush to fight against extremists that wish to do the United States harm,” said freshman congressman Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi.

But there were notable exceptions to the share-the-credit approach. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in a statement released by his office, congratulated “the brave men and women of our military and intelligence communities” but omitted the current and former presidents. And Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, did not include Bush in her praise for mission’s success.